I've realized that my life is becoming increasingly family-oriented & squeaky-clean. This weekend was a good example.
Friday night - I tutored a student after work, then headed home to veg on the couch & watch TV. I had to be up around 7 a.m. on Saturday, so I crept into bed early.
Saturday - I did a task for my company during the morning hours. Then, I babysat Baby W in the afternoon. Stayed at my sister and bro-in-law's house for dinner & a movie. Home around 10:30 p.m. (on a Saturday!)
Sunday - Drove down to the South Shore in the morning to meet with the seamstress about my bridesmaid dress. After thirty minutes of pinning & tucking, I headed back north. Vegged on the couch through the afternoon with a cup of coffee, a blueberry muffin, a Country Living magazine & a PBS documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright.
Sunday evening was a little, tiny bit cooler. My friend & her husband had a cookout in their backyard, so I headed over there in the late afternoon. Hung out with old friends & new acquaintances & drank two whole beers! However, there were 4 kids under 10 at the party. So, I also spent half the evening playing trains, drawing on a chalk board, rolling down the hill & having a deep conversation about the first day of preschool with a 3-year old.
Now, please don't get me wrong. I love my friends & family very much. There are not many things I like more than playing with my nephew & running around with friends' kids. However, a girl has to be a little naughty sometime, right? ;)
I'm feeling unable to write a normal, newsy, "here's what I did this weekend" post today, so I want to take a minute to talk about 9/11/01. Since this event has become the major historical tragedy of my generation, I think most people can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news.
It was the first day of class in my sophomore year of Undergrad College. I was getting ready for my day - picking out clothes, humming along to the radio, and enjoying my new single room. I heard the radio announcer mention "a plane crashing into the World Trade Center" in passing, but I didn't think much of it. I assumed (like many people) that it was similar to when that small craft had crashed into one of the towers a few years before. Tragic for the small plane and certainly sad, but not much of a problem for the towers or the people who worked there.
That is, I thought that until I got to class. I picked a seat & settled in. My professor, who was also my advisor, looked very solemnly at all of us and said, "This is your JFK assassination." Until that moment, I hadn't even begun to understand the nature of the tragedy - its gravity & its repercussions. I was stunned & very close to tears.
The rest of that day is a bit of a blur. After class let out, I raced to my room to call my best friend R., who was just beginning her sophomore year at Big City College in Manhattan. Naturally, I couldn't raise her on her cell phone & spent the rest of the day worried sick. I finally heard from her that evening. She was safe & sound, unlike so many other best friends that day.
It's interesting to note how events like the attack on the World Trade Center (and Hurricane Katrina) bring out both our selfish demons & the "better angels of our nature." On September 11th, there was palpable relief in the Undergrad College community that we were so far from the "frontlines." On the other hand, on that day (and the days to follow), the line for the Red Cross blood drive at my school wove out the door & down the hallway. You couldn't get near the place.
After the 11th, politics took over. I believe the president has made many mistakes in judgment & foreign policy since that day. However, today, we take a moment to honor the best friends, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters who lost their lives & their futures on 9/11. Regardless of their politics, religion, race or color (and isn't that the point?), may they rest in peace.
- One book that changed your life: The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Wait, before you dismiss me as a total nerd (which, of course, is entirely true), let me explain. When I was around 17 or 18 years old, I opened my dad's college copy & found the poem "Ozymandias" by Shelley. I was so enthralled with the idea that you could transmit history via the written word that I decided then & there to major in history.
- One book you have read more than once: I have worn out my copies of Pride & Prejudice and The Blue Castle.
- One book you would want on a desert island: Without a doubt, Anne of Green Gables. It was my favorite when I was small and it reminds me of my family & PEI.
- One book that made you laugh: Anything by Bill Bryson, really. However, I particularly love Notes from a Small Island and A Walk in the Woods.
- One book you wish you had written: No Great Mischief, by Alistair MacLeod. It's a novel about a tight-knit Scots-Canadian family that is by turns moving, funny & sad.
- One book you wish had never been written: To be completely honest, Middlemarch. I was given it as a present from dear family friends & thus felt compelled to have a crack at it. I never made it more than 100 pages in. It's just . . . meh (even though it's considered a classic).
- One book that made you cry: Night and No Great Mischief.
- One book that you are currently reading: Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum. I'm just getting into it now, but with a title like that, how can an ocean-loving, occasional loner with a bug for travel & adventure like myself say no? :)
- One book you have been meaning to read: To the Lighthouse. I bought it more than 5 years ago and have yet to sit down with it. I'm sorry, Virginia Woolf!
- One book you wish everyone would read, and why: This was a really tough one. In the end, I decided that the most important books I've read (from a global perspective) would probably be: Black Dog of Fate, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Ordinary Men. All of these books deal with how ordinary people handle oppression, murder, corruption, and war. Each one will force you to re-think your world & realize how close we all are to the edge.
I know - it's not that long of a day & I'm a big baby. Here's the sitch - I was scheduled to work a swing shift today & come in 11-7:30 (to approximate my normal 8.5 hour workday). However, once my after-hours interviews were scheduled, I realized that I had a big, important meeting with a client in the city at 10 a.m. Hence, I'm working 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. Blah - good thing DD's medium coffees were only $0.49 today! :)
Plus, when I get off work, my friend L. & I have a movie night/sleepover planned at the new place. Hooray for old friends, chick flicks & junk food!
BTW, picture above is Thing 1 & I over the past weekend. Look at how big the kid's noggin is!!! And of course how cuddly & cute my little nephew-man is. :)
Hi. I know. I'm a naughty blogger. We're up to 4 days with no posts. AND Friday's post was really just a bit of fluff which basically blew you off. It's been busy around the office - but that's no excuse. Without any further ado, here's what's up with me!
First, I spent a lovely long Labor Day weekend at the Lake House with the family. Thing 1 is getting huge! He will be 7 months old next week & he's already into 9 and 12-month clothing. Even the J. Crew polo I bought him (meant for 2-year olds) almost fits! Here are the pictures from this weekend.
Secondly, I promised pictures of the new apartment & here I am to deliver! It's still a bit of a mess, so I'm somewhat ashamed. However, the bones of the apartment will speak for themselves.
Here is my kitchen table.
Here is my kitchenette.
Here is my living area (disregard the suitcases & check out those bookshelves!)
Here is my cute bathroom - I'm loving the tree view through the window.
Here is my bed, dresser & wardrobe.
And finally, my bed, night table & window. :) Doesn't it look like a lovely, peaceful place? It's definitely a bit weird to be living in Hometown again, but the quiet nights & crickets outside the window (versus traffic & drunk kids from The Square) make it up to me.
I was out sick yesterday & consequently am being slowly buried in a huge avalanche of work. Therefore & ergo, you get today's webcomic from Married to the Sea, a wish for a great Labor Day weekend, and not much else.
Deal with it. ;)
I've realized that my life is becoming increasingly family-oriented & squeaky-clean. This weekend was a good example.
